Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje picks up endorsement from Clean Water Action

I'm guessing the Mayor wrote these bullet points himself and had the group sign off. Not one mention about no bid contracts to political friends with the single stream recycling fiasco but then again, that's only a few million tax payer dollars.

Being that this is related to water.

As there was a phosphoric acid / oil spill into the Huron River in Ann Arbor that last for hours, on July 19th (before the rains came and so it was not a storm related spill)...

Would either Clean Water Action, or the mayor care to give a comment?

I have been told that spills like this are common, is that true?
Is this being investigated?
Why wasn't a public health notice issued to the residents of the spill and for the next week hundreds would canoe, swim and fish in the river located between the hospital and Gallup Park?

Kai is referring to this story:

http://www.annarbor.com/news/chemical-found-in-huron-river-was-petroleum-based/

Thanks Edward...

and how at least one incident report indicates that it was Phosphoric Acid that entered the river.

If might be useful to know if city hall knew about it? The question above might not be fair if they did not know. But I believe they should have been informed about it.

According to OSEH in a report to the MDNRE, OGC, OSEH and Washtenaw County Health... written 7 days! AFTER the oil/phosphoric acid spill...

"UMH security, UM-Department of Public Safety (DPS) and UM-Occupational Safety and Environmental Health (OSEH) also responded to the scene where Ann Arbor Fire had established incident command."

So, from my understanding... the city police department was not notified. Why not? Well... that's a good question. If the drains led to the city portion of the area, then I

believe they should have been involved. If they did not go off University property, then perhaps there was no reason to notify them. But, from my understanding, the University of

Michigan does not own the Huron River. And so, I believe that perhaps city police should have been notified. Or does the university own the river? Since the spill was certainly

not fully contained, it is quite possible that the substance went away from the city, and so I think that state police should have been involved as well. Plus, since there was no

accident report, then perhaps this is dumping and from my understanding, that is illegal and a criminal offense.

"Once containment efforts were in place, AAFD turned the scene over to UM. Rain hindered the response efforts, and eventually washed away the material that had been contained in the outfall".

The HRWC, from a summary from the City's Water Quality Manager, put it like this:
"UM OESH was called on site and took responsibility for the remainder of cleanup and reporting, as it was their system."

Note: "as it was their system".
The report makes no mention as to why the public was not notified.

According to the DNRE:
"Urban storm water is not clean, and generally the public still does not understand their personal impacts to water quality based on their actions".

But, did the storm water system go into the residential areas of the community? This happened BEFORE the rains came. The DNRE went on to lecture me about 'Protecting Water Quality from Urban Runoff", but again I ask... how much of that particular drain is in the community and how much is in the hospital system? And is it common for citizens to dump 88% 7pH Phosphoric Acid? Perhaps it is? Does the DNRE or the UM-OSEH believe the AAFD analysis to be faulty, and that it was not acid? I asked the DNRE if they were interested in hearing about the phosphoric acid report and they told me on the phone, 'NO'.

But, why was the public not notified? I don't know. THE UM-OESH was handed responsibility for reporting... And when I have asked about it, no one answered that question, except for this response from the DNRE
"Yes, the University is following their requirements".

So, who was supposed to tell the public?

One would think that a group with the words "clean water" in its name would be more interested in promoting one of the purposes explicitly stated in the millage language--the one about buying land or development rights along the Huron and its tributaries in order to protect our water supply.

But instead, they seem to be promoting agriculture, the biggest water-polluting industry in the world, and something NOT explicitly stated as a purpose of the Greenbelt millage funds.

Seems this group has lost sight of its core mission.

@Robert M.-hearye, hearye!

Any mayor of Ann Arbor is likely to be fairly good on environmental issues, but that does not imply they are better than anyone else. There's been very little said contrasting Hieftje's stance with any others on environmental issues.

Any update on the Gelman/Pell poisoning of our water supply and the movement towards the Huron River and the Mayor's failure to lead on this issue? Uh huh...the clean water folks are strangely quiet on that failure. Lol.

At times I've been quite critical of mainstream and local green groups for not showing a sufficient commitment to environmental justice, including the economic and political reforms necessary to accomplish this over time.

Nevertheless, I beccome slack-jawed while reading the commentary by various opponents off the mayor and city council. Purely for reasons of political brinkmanship, they continue to ridicule and condemn any green group or activity to which the mayor's name has been attached in recent years. Sometimes their automated, kneejerk contempt happens to overlap with reasonable criticism and analysis, while at other times it reads like an exercise in reactionary, green teabagging. Little real judgement is involved.

As has been typical, the opponents behave hypocritically. They will not acknowledge, nor tolerate discussion of, the serious excesses in their own pet 'green' projects. A huge, exorbitant development scheme like the full downtown greenway would further damage local funding for social and community services. As a new variation on old-school urban renewal, it would pit the comfortable, middle class OWS homeowners against the remaining working class residents of the central city — it's a class issue.

just some clarification.
i learned that it wasn't 88% concentration of phosphoric acid...
but that it was 88% confidence of phosphoric acid.